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A Debate (Sort of) with the Presidential Debate Commission

Senior advisers to Gov. George W. Bush met yesterday with representatives from three television networks to discuss presidential debates that individual networks have proposed.

Bush has said that he will participate in three debates and that he wants those debates to be watched by as many television viewers as possible. But he has not agreed to the three debates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are by far the most likely to garner prime-time coverage by all the major networks as opposed to an individual network sponsor.

Meanwhile, Ralph Nader has been touring across New York today, speaking in front of the General Electric Building on the theme "Give Back Polluted GE Money." He is also hitting Wall Street where he will speak in front of the New York Stock Exchange. As he travels across the country, one of his main themes has been his exclusion from the presidential debates. The first one is scheduled to kick off in Boston in October. The Commission on Presidential Debates or the CPD is sponsoring the debates. They have established guidelines for participation in these debates that say a candidate must have 15% in the polls in order to be included. Nader has hovered just below double digits. Well, there is a growing movement across the country to try and get the CPD to allow third party candidates to participate. Nader himself has a lawsuit pending against the Federal Election Commission.

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